Thursday, 26 March 2015

Early years - getting in contact with nature
My story with wheatgrass goes back to childhood and starts with my wonderful mother exploring natures gifts.
My mom has always shown great interest in herbal medicine especially after she found my grandma's old health book (Maria Treben - Health through God's pharmacy). She studied it carefully and started experimenting with some herbal teas - on herself and the family of course :) Some early good experience made her thirsty for more knowledge and for more herbal supplies. She started wondering around in woods with books and pictures to find and recognize the plants she was unable to get in shops.

My first herbal tea was meant to help me going to sleep easier. It worked, but if you have ever got in contact with Valerian root, you know it's not a pleasant thing. The dry roots need to be kept in an airtight container as they smell from a mile and the taste...not the best thing to try at first, especially for a teenager who likes to say 'NO' to everything so easily. But I also suffered a lot from anxiety and struggled with sleep and my mom insisted this would help ('Just get it down quickly, you won't regret!' - she said), so I went for it...and I slept like a baby that night :)

Time went by and although my initial encounter with herbal tea was successful, I didn't really pay attention to this 'hobby' of hers...until graduation time came at the age of 18 (school system is different in Hungary and most kids finish secondary school at this age as we start primary at the age of rising 7). By then my mom had developed an excellent anti-anxiety tea recipe that helped her to get rid of her stomach cramps - which I experienced severely due this exam period, although I've always been among the best of the class, I just couldn't shift this nervousness. I remember me sitting at breakfast, shaking like a leaf on the first day. She put the tea in front of me and said - 'You need to drink this and it'll all be fine.' The memory of the Valerian root tea's taste flooded my mind and my first thought was 'YUK, no way'. But than logic won as I also remembered the effects and I drank it without hesitation. I am not entirely sure, how long it took for it to start working, but it all happened before I got to school. The cramp and the annoying butterflies were completely gone from my stomach and the shaking also stopped. 'Miracle' - I thought and from that point onward I never doubted my mom and ate or drank everything she told me to.
This herbal tea mixture had become my best friend for many years under my university studies and after lots of convincing I managed to get my friends to try and enjoy it's great benefits too. I myself was already enjoying the taste as well.
It's weird how your taste changes if something is working for you. Once I read an article, how you can 'train' your taste buds to like what's good for your body as your brain can actually change your taste. Basically reprogram willingly if you keep consuming things that are healthy although they are not to your liking. I do believe this is true as I am a good proof of that.

And my mom just carried on researching and at some point in my early 20's she introduced wheatgrass to our diet. Every now and then she turned up in my room with a tasty green drink in her hand which she said to be an apple and wheatgrass juice combo. At this point I didn't realize how grateful my family will be for the very existence of this plant.